There have been conventionally proposed various apparatuses that detect dozing of a driver and issues a warning. (Refer to Japanese Patent Documents JP-A-2005-190082 and JP-A-2003-205761, for example.)
There are apparatuses that carry out control to stop a vehicle for the prevention of an accident due to neglect of a stop sign, drowsy driving, or the like when the vehicle approaches a preset stop point. (Refer to Japanese Patent Document JP-A-H10-332408, for example.)
There are apparatuses that provide a user with information in an interactive manner for getting rid of the user's boredom or drowsiness. (Refer to Japanese Patent Document JP-A-2003-329477 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,481), for example.)
However, the above apparatuses cause a problem. The apparatuses described in Japanese Patent Documents JP-A-2005-190082 and JP-A-2003-205761 issue a warning only when a driver dozes off. These apparatuses cannot search for such a route that a section where the driver's drowsiness was detected in the past is avoided. The apparatus described in Patent Document JP-A-H10-332408 and JP-A-2003-329477 cannot search for such a route that a section where the driver's drowsiness was detected in the past is avoided, either.